The present invention relates generally to methods and arrangements for determining that there is a life form, i.e., a human being, in a vehicle and the location of the life form, i.e., in which seat the life form is situated.
More specifically, the present invention relates to methods and arrangement for obtaining information about occupancy of a vehicle and utilizing this information for some other purpose, e.g., to control various vehicular systems to benefit the occupants.
Even more specifically, the present invention relates to methods and arrangements for obtaining information about occupancy of a vehicle, in particular after a crash involving the vehicle, and conveying this information to response personnel to optimize their response to the crash and/or enable proper assistance to be rendered to the occupants after the crash.
In 1984, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation issued a requirement for frontal crash protection of automobile occupants. This regulation mandated xe2x80x9cpassive occupant restraintsxe2x80x9d for all passenger cars by 1992. A more recent regulation required both driver and passenger side airbags on all passenger cars and light trucks by 1998. In addition, the demand for airbags is constantly accelerating in both Europe and Japan and all vehicles produced in these areas and eventually worldwide will likely be equipped with airbags as standard equipment, if they do not include them already.
Whereas thousands of lives have been saved by airbags, significant improvements can be made. As discussed in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,462 referenced above, and incorporated herein by reference, for a variety of reasons, vehicle occupants can be or get too close to the airbag before it deploys and can be seriously injured or killed upon deployment of the airbag.
Also, a child in a rear facing child seat, which is placed on the right front passenger seat, is in danger of being seriously injured if the passenger airbag deploys. This has now become an industry-wide concern and the U.S. automobile industry is continually searching for an easy, economical solution, which will prevent the deployment of the passenger side airbag if a rear facing child seat is present. An improvement on the invention disclosed in the above-referenced patent, as will be disclosed in greater detail below, includes more sophisticated means to identify objects within the passenger compartment and will solve this problem.
Initially, these systems will solve the out-of-position occupant and the rear-facing child seat problems related to current airbag systems and prevent unneeded deployments when a seat is unoccupied. Airbags are now under development to protect rear seat occupants in vehicle crashes. A system is therefore needed to detect the presence of occupants, position, i.e., determine if they are out-of-position, and type, e.g., to identify the presence of a rear facing child seat in the rear seat. Current and future automobiles may have eight or more airbags as protection is sought for rear seat occupants and from side impacts. In addition to eliminating the disturbance of unnecessary airbag deployments, the cost of replacing these airbags will be excessive if they all deploy in an accident. The improvements described below minimize this cost by not deploying an airbag for a seat, which is not occupied by a human being. An occupying item of a seat may be a living occupant such as a human being or dog, another living organism such as a plant, or an inanimate object such as a box or bag of groceries.
A device to monitor the vehicle interior and identify its contents is needed to solve these and many other problems. For example, once a Vehicle Interior Identification and Monitoring System (VIMS) for identifying and monitoring the contents of a vehicle is in place, many other products become possible including the following:
Inflators and control systems now exist which will adjust the amount of gas flowing into and/or out of the airbag to account for the size and position of the occupant and for the severity of the accident. The vehicle identification and monitoring system of this invention will control such systems based on the presence and position of vehicle occupants or the presence, position and orientation of an occupied child seat.
Side impact airbag systems began appearing on 1995 vehicles. The danger of deployment induced injuries will exist for side impact airbags as they now do for frontal impact airbags. A child with his head against the airbag is such an example. The system of this invention will minimize such injuries.
Vehicles can be provided with a standard cellular phone as well as the Global Positioning System (GPS), an automobile navigation or location system with an optional connection to a manned assistance facility, which is now available on at least one vehicle model. In the event of an accident, the phone may automatically call 911 for emergency assistance and report the exact position of the vehicle. If the vehicle also has a system as described below for monitoring each seat location, the number and perhaps the condition of the occupants could also be reported. In that way, the emergency service (EMS) would know what equipment and how many ambulances to send to the accident site. Moreover, a communication channel can be opened between the vehicle and a monitoring facility/emergency response facility or personnel to enable directions to be provided to the occupant(s) of the vehicle to assist in any necessary first aid prior to arrival of the emergency assistance personnel.
Vehicle entertainment system engineers have stated that the quality of the sound in the vehicle could be improved if the number, size and location of occupants and other objects were known. This information can be provided by the vehicle interior identification and monitoring system of this invention.
Similarly to the entertainment system, the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system (HVAC) could be improved if the number, attributes and location of vehicle occupants were known. This can be used to provide a climate control system tailored to each occupant, for example, or the system can be turned off for certain seat locations if there are no occupants present at those locations.
In some cases, the position of a particular part of the occupant is of interest such as: (a) his hand or arm and whether it is in the path of a closing window so that the motion of the window needs to be stopped; (b) the position of the shoulder so that the seat belt anchorage point can be adjusted for the best protection of the occupant; or, (c) the position of the rear of the occupants head so that the headrest can be adjusted to minimize whiplash injuries in rear impacts.
The above applications illustrate the wide range of opportunities, which become available if the identity and location of various objects and occupants, and some of their parts, within the vehicle were known. Once the system is operational, it would be logical for the system to also, incorporate the airbag electronic sensor and diagnostics system (SDM) since it needs to interface with SDM anyway and since they could share computer capabilities which will result in a significant cost saving to the auto manufacturer. For the same reasons, it would be logical for VIMS to include the side impact sensor and diagnostic system. As the VIMS improves to where such things as the exact location of the occupants ears and eyes can be determined, even more significant improvements to the entertainment system become possible through the use of noise canceling sound, and the rear view mirror can be automatically adjusted for the driver""s eye location. Another example involves the monitoring of the driver""s behavior over time which can be used to warn a driver if he or she is falling asleep, or to stop the vehicle if the driver loses the capacity to control it.
Using an advanced VIMS, as explained below, the position of the driver""s eyes can be accurately determined and portions of the windshield can be selectively darkened to eliminate the glare from the sun or oncoming vehicle headlights. This system uses electro-chromic glass, a liquid crystal device, or other appropriate technology, and detectors to detect the direction of the offending light source. In addition to eliminating the glare, the sun visor can now also be eliminated.
The present invention adds more sophisticated pattern recognition capabilities such as fuzzy logic systems, neural network systems or other pattern recognition computer based algorithms to the occupant position measurement system disclosed in the above-referenced patents and patent applications and greatly extends the areas of application of this technology. An example of such a pattern recognition system using neural networks using sonar is discussed in two papers by Gorman, R. P. and Sejnowski, T. J. xe2x80x9cAnalysis of Hidden Units in a Layered Network Trained to Classify Sonar Targetsxe2x80x9d, Neural Networks, Vol. 1. pp. 75-89, 1988, and xe2x80x9cLearned Classification of Sonar Targets Using a Massively Parallel Networkxe2x80x9d, IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, Vol. 36, No. 7, July 1988.
xe2x80x9cPattern recognitionxe2x80x9d as used herein will generally mean any system which processes a signal that is generated by an object, or is modified by interacting with an object, in order to determine which one of a set of classes that the object belongs to. Such a system might determine only that the object is or is not a member of one specified class, or it might attempt to assign the object to one of a larger set of specified classes, or find that it is not a member of any of the classes in the set. The signals processed are generally electrical signals coming from transducers which are sensitive to either acoustic or electromagnetic radiation and if electromagnetic, they can be either visible light, infrared, ultraviolet, radar or other part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
xe2x80x9cTo identifyxe2x80x9d as used herein will generally mean to determine that the object belongs to a particular set or class. The class may be one containing all rear facing child seats, one containing all human occupants, all human occupants not sitting in a rear facing child seat, or all humans in a certain height or weight range depending on the purpose of the system. In the case where a particular person is to be recognized, the set or class will contain only a single element, the person to be recognized.
Some examples follow:
In a passive infrared system a detector receives infrared radiation from an object in its field of view, in this case the vehicle occupant, and determines the temperature of the occupant based on the infrared radiation. The VIMS can then respond to the temperature of the occupant, which can either be a child in a rear facing child seat or a normally seated occupant, to control some other system. This technology could provide input data to a pattern recognition system but it has limitations related to temperature. The sensing of the child could pose a problem if the child is covered with blankets. It also might not be possible to differentiate between a rear facing child seat and a forward facing child seat. In all cases, the technology will fail to detect the occupant if the ambient temperature reaches body temperature as it does in hot climates. Nevertheless, for use in the control of the vehicle climate, for example, a passive infrared system that permits an accurate measurement of each occupant""s temperature is useful.
In a laser optical system an infrared laser beam is used to momentarily illuminate an object, occupant or child seat in the manner as described, and illustrated in FIG. 8, of U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,462. In some cases, a charge-coupled device (a type of TV camera also referred to as a CCD array) or a CMOS device is used to receive the reflected light. The laser can either be used in a scanning mode, or, through the use of a lens, a cone of light can be created which covers a large portion of the object. Also triangulation can be used in conjunction with an offset scanning laser to determine the range of the illuminated spot from the light detector. In each case, a pattern recognition system, as defined above, is used to identify and classify, and can be used to locate, the illuminated object and its constituent parts. This system provides the most information about the object and at a rapid data rate. Its main drawback is cost which is considerably above that of ultrasonic or passive infrared systems. As the cost of lasers comes down in the future, this system will become more competitive. Depending on the implementation of the system, there may be some concern for the safety of the occupant if the laser light can enter the occupant""s eyes. This is minimized if the laser operates in the infrared spectrum.
Radar systems have similar properties to the laser system discussed above. The wavelength of a particular radar system can limit the ability of the pattern recognition system to detect object features smaller than a certain size. Once again, however, there is some concern about the health effects of radar on children and other occupants. This concern is expressed in various reports available from the United States Food and Drug Administration Division of Devices. Naturally, electromagnetic waves from other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum could also be used such as, for example, those used with what are sometimes referred to as capacitive sensors, e.g., as described in U.S. patents by Kithil et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,366,241, 5,602,734, 5,691,693, 5,802,479, 5,844,486 and 6,014,602 and by Jinno et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,948,031 which are incorporated herein by reference.
The ultrasonic system is the least expensive and potentially provides less information than the optical or radar systems due to the delays resulting from the speed of sound and due to the wave length which is considerably longer than the optical (including infrared) systems. The wavelength limits the detail, which can be seen by the system. In spite of these limitations, as shown below, ultrasonics can provide sufficient timely information to permit the position and velocity of an occupant to be accurately known and, when used with an appropriate pattern recognition system, it is capable of positively determining the presence of a rear facing child seat. One pattern recognition system which has been used to identify a rear facing child seat uses neural networks and is similar to that described in the above-referenced papers by Gorman et al.
A focusing system, such as used on some camera systems, could be used to determine the initial position of an occupant but is too slow to monitor his position during a crash. This is a result of the mechanical motions required to operate the lens focusing system. By itself it cannot determine the presence of a rear facing child seat or of an occupant but when used with a charge-coupled device plus some infrared illumination for night vision, and an appropriate pattern recognition system, this becomes possible.
From the above discussion, it can be seen that the addition of sophisticated pattern recognition means to any of the standard illumination and/or reception technologies for use in a motor vehicle permits the development of a host of new products, systems or capabilities heretofore not available and as described in more detail below.
Briefly, the claimed inventions are methods and arrangements for determining that there is a life form, e.g., a human being, in a vehicle and the location of the life form, i.e., in which seat the life form is situated. This determination is used in various methods and arrangements for, e.g., controlling deployment of occupant restraint devices in the event of a vehicle crash, controlling heating and air-conditioning systems to optimize the comfort for any occupants, controlling an entertainment system as desired by the occupants, controlling a glare prevention device for the occupants, preventing accidents by a driver who is unable to safely drive the vehicle and enabling an effective and optimal response in the event of a crash (either oral directions to be communicated to the occupants or the dispatch of personnel to aid the occupants). Thus, one particular objective of the inventions is to obtain information about occupancy of a vehicle and convey this information to remotely situated assistance personnel to optimize their response to a crash involving the vehicle and/or enable proper assistance to be rendered to the occupants after the crash.
Principle objects and advantages of the claimed inventions, or other disclosed inventions, are:
1. To recognize the presence of a human on a particular seat of a motor vehicle and to use this information to affect the operation of another vehicle system such as the airbag system, heating and air conditioning system, cellular phone, or entertainment system, among others.
2. To recognize the presence of a human on a particular seat of a motor vehicle and then to determine his/her position and to use this position information to affect the operation of another vehicle system.
3. To recognize the presence of a human on a particular seat of a motor vehicle and then to determine his/her velocity relative to the passenger compartment and to use this velocity information to affect the operation of another vehicle system.
4. To determine the position of a seat in the vehicle using sensors remote from the seat and to use that information in conjunction with a memory system and appropriate actuators to position the seat to a predetermined location.
5. To determine the position, velocity or size of an occupant in a motor vehicle and to utilize this information to control the rate of gas generation, or the amount of gas generated, by an airbag inflator system or otherwise control the flow of gas into or out of an airbag.
6. To determine the fact that an occupant is not restrained by a seatbelt and therefore to modify the characteristics of the airbag system. This determination can be done either by monitoring the position of the occupant or through the use of a resonating device placed on the shoulder belt portion of the seatbelt.
7. To determine the presence and/or position of rear seated occupants in the vehicle and to use this information to affect the operation of a rear seat protection airbag for frontal impacts.
8. To determine the presence and/or position of occupants relative to the side impact airbag systems and to use this information to affect the operation of a side impact protection airbag system.
9. To determine the openness of a vehicle window and to use that information to affect another vehicle system.
10. To determine the presence of an occupant""s hand or other object in the path of a closing window and to affect the window closing system.
11. To remotely determine the fact that a vehicle door is not tightly closed using an illumination transmitting and receiving system such as one employing electromagnetic or acoustic waves.
12. To determine the position of the shoulder of a vehicle occupant and to use that information to control the seatbelt anchorage point.
13. To determine the position of the rear of an occupant""s head and to use that information to control the position of the headrest.
14. To recognize the presence of a rear facing child seat on a particular seat of a motor vehicle and to use this information to affect the operation of another vehicle system such as the airbag system.
15. To determine the total number of occupants of a vehicle and in the event of an accident to transmit that information, as well as other information such as the condition of the occupants, to a receiver remote from the vehicle.
16. To affect the vehicle entertainment system, e.g., the speakers, based on a determination of the size and/or location of various occupants or other objects within the vehicle passenger compartment.
17. To affect the vehicle heating, ventilation and air conditioning system based on a determination of the number, size and location of various occupants or other objects within the vehicle passenger compartment.
18. To determine the temperature of an occupant based on infrared radiation coming from that occupant and to use that information to control the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.
19. To provide a vehicle interior monitoring system for determining the location of occupants within the vehicle and to include within the same system various electronics for controlling an airbag system.
20. To determine the approximate location of the eyes of a driver and to use that information to control the position of the rear view mirrors of the vehicle.
21. To monitor the position of the head of the vehicle driver and determine whether the driver is falling asleep or otherwise impaired and likely to lose control of the vehicle and to use that information to affect another vehicle system.
22. To monitor the position of the eyelids of the vehicle driver and determine whether the driver is falling asleep or otherwise impaired and likely to lose control of the vehicle, or is unconscious after an accident, and to use that information to affect another vehicle system.
23. To determine the location of the eyes of a vehicle occupant and the direction of a light source such as the headlights of an oncoming vehicle or the sun and to cause a filter to be placed in such a manner as to reduce the intensity of the light striking the eyes of the occupant.
24. To determine the location of the eyes of a vehicle occupant and the direction of a light source such as the headlights of a rear approaching vehicle or the sun and to cause a filter to be placed in such a manner as to reduce the intensity of the light reflected from the rear view mirrors and striking the eyes of the occupant.
25. To determine the location of the ears of one or more vehicle occupants and to use that information to control the entertainment system, e.g., the speakers, so as to improve the quality of the sound reaching the occupants"" ears through such methods as noise canceling sound.
26. To recognize a particular driver based on such factors as physical appearance or other attributes and to use this information to control another vehicle system such as a security system, seat adjustment, or maximum permitted vehicle velocity, among others.
27. To provide an occupant sensor which determines the presence and health state of any occupants in a vehicle. The presence of the occupants may be determined using an animal life or heart beat sensor.
28. To provide an occupant sensor which determines whether any occupants of the vehicle are breathing by analyzing the occupant""s motion. It can also be determined whether an occupant is breathing with difficulty.
29. To provide an occupant sensor which determines whether any occupants of the vehicle are breathing by analyzing the chemical composition of the air/gas in the vehicle, e.g., in proximity of the occupant""s mouth.
30. To provide an occupant sensor which determines whether any occupants of the vehicle are conscious by analyzing movement of their eyes.
31. To provide an occupant sensor which determines whether any occupants of the vehicle are wounded to the extent that they are bleeding by analyzing air/gas in the vehicle, e.g., directly around each occupant.
32. To provide an occupant sensor which determines the presence and health state of any occupants in the vehicle by analyzing sounds emanating from the passenger compartment. Such sounds can be directed to a remote, manned site for consideration in dispatching response personnel.
33. To provide an occupant sensor which determines whether any occupants of the vehicle are moving using radar systems, e.g., micropower impulse radar (MIR), which can also detect the heartbeats of any occupants.
34. To provide a vehicle monitoring system which provides a communications channel between the vehicle (possibly through microphones distributed throughout the vehicle) and a manned assistance facility to enable communications with the occupants after a crash or whenever the occupants are in need of assistance (e.g., if the occupants are lost, then data forming maps as a navigational aid would be transmitted to the vehicle).
In order to achieve some of these objects, an arrangement for obtaining and conveying information about occupants in a vehicle includes a health state determining mechanism for determining the health state of any occupants in the vehicle, and a communications mechanism coupled to the health state determining mechanism and arranged to establish a communications channel between the vehicle and a remote facility to thereby enable the determined health state of the occupants to be transmitted to the remote facility.
The health state determining mechanism may include a heartbeat sensor, a sensor for detecting motion of the occupants such as a micropower impulse radar sensor and/or an arrangement for detecting changes in the weight distribution of the occupants, a motion sensor for determining whether the occupants are breathing, a chemical sensor for analyzing the amount of carbon dioxide in the passenger compartment or around the occupants and/or a chemical sensor for detecting the presence of blood in the passenger compartment.
The health state determining mechanism may be designed to determine whether a driver""s breathing is erratic or indicative of a state in which the driver is dozing. It may also include a breath-analyzer for analyzing the alcohol content in air expelled by the driver.
The arrangement can also include an alarm or warning light activatable by the remote facility over the established communications channel based on analysis of the transmitted health state of the occupant.
A vehicle including the above arrangement could thus include a vehicle component or subsystem activatable by the remote facility over the established communications channel based on analysis of the transmitted health state of the driver. For example, when the driver is abnormally operating the vehicle as evidenced by the determined health state, the vehicle component is activated by the remote facility. The component may be an audible alarm, a visible warning light, an automatic guidance system arranged to guide the vehicle out of the traffic stream or to a shoulder of a roadway and an, ignition shutoff arranged to shut off the ignition.
A method for obtaining and conveying information about occupants in a vehicle entails determining the health state of any occupants in the vehicle and establishing a communications channel between the vehicle and a remote facility to enable the determined health state of the occupants to be transmitted to the remote facility. The health state may be determined by any of the sensors described above.
A method for preventing accidents in accordance with the invention entails determining the health state of a driver of the vehicle, establishing a communications channel between the vehicle and a remote facility to enable the determined health state of the driver to be transmitted to the remote facility and activating a vehicle component or subsystem by the remote facility over the established communications channel based on analysis of the transmitted health state of the driver. For example, when the driver is abnormally operating the vehicle as evidenced by the determined health state, the vehicle component is activated by the remote facility. The component may be an audible alarm, a visible warning light, an automatic guidance system arranged to guide the vehicle out of the traffic stream or to a shoulder of a roadway and an ignition shutoff arranged to shut off the ignition.
All of the above-described methods and apparatus may be used in conjunction with one another and in combination with the methods and apparatus for optimizing the driving conditions for the occupants of the vehicle described herein.